The Story of Khan
by LadyInglorion
Summary: Desperate for information regarding Khan, Spock and Jim awaken one of his shipmates, an old professor named Carl Ernsckye. They get much more than they bargained for: the professor knows everything, dating back to Khan's earliest years. Where did he come from, and how did he become the monster he is today? This is Khan's history, his story, his life.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 –

"Talk to me, Spock," I shouted as I emerged from the elevator on board the Starship Enterprise. "Who is this man, and why should I care?"

"Captain Kirk, you are twenty minutes late," Spock said evenly as we set off at a brisk pace toward the aft regions of the ship. "As the newly reinstated Captain of the Enterprise, one would expect you to be punctual."

"Obviously you don't know me very well, then," I countered.

"I see that narrowly avoiding losing your ship has had minimal effects upon your behavior."

"Did you really expect anything different?"

"I had hopes."

"That's not very logical," I chuckled. Spock's eyebrows shifted almost undetectably. I had to smirk. "So tell me about this guy."

"How familiar are you with Earth's twenty-first century history?"

I shot Spock an injured look.

"It's my home planet, of course I know our history," I exclaimed.

"Then you know that Khan is a product of the Eugenics War that swept the globe in the late 1990's and early 2000's."

"Actually I didn't," I scratched my head. Spock sighed.

"Khan was created during third World War. Plainly put, he was designed to be a super soldier, a faultless being of unrelenting physical prowess and superior intellect."

"Like Captain America," I interceded. Spock blinked. "He was a comic book hero from the 1940's. Now who needs to brush up on their history?" I grinned. Spock remained impassive, studying me with curious dark eyes. My expression switched from mocking to aggravation. "Fine. Continue."

"Actually, you are not far from the truth of the matter, however you are several generations behind Khan's time," Spock said. "But I shall let the rest be explained by our guest."

"Don't tell me our guest in Khan," I growled, sudden anger flushing into my cheeks. I had hated people before. Nero I had hated. But no enemy I had ever encountered before had ever accrued as much utter loathing and malice as Khan. That bastard was worth nothing. From the bottom of my soul I loathed him and everything he had done, to me and to my friends and family at Star Fleet. He did not deserve the comfortable prison cell and the trial we'd granted him; he deserved to be chained in the sewer and drowned in shit-filled urine like the rat he is. I hated him. But of course Star Fleet has their protocols.

"No," Spock said. I could detect a slight edge to his voice and glanced in his direction critically. "Rather one of his shipmates." I stopped walking.

"You woke one of those monsters without asking me?" I demanded, clenching my fists. "Spock, we can barely handle one of them, how are we supposed to deal with two?"

"I will admit that awakening Professor Ernsckye without your approval is in violation of many Star Fleet protocols," Spock started edgily, anxiety flashing across his face. "But as first officer I gave McCoy permission to arouse Professor Ernsckye from cryo-sleep in the hope we might extrapolate information regarding the war criminal, Khan, from him." My head snapped up to glare at Spock.

"Never," I said slowly, "use the word 'arouse' around me again, okay? Gives me a lot of bad images I didn't really need." I left Spock standing on a little island of confusion as his Vulcan mind struggled vainly to riddle through my latest condescending attempt at a joke.

* * *

"Shit, that guy is old," I said to Spock. The man I assumed was Professor Ernsckye looked nothing like the young, chiseled Khan. Ernsckye's face was withered and a deep shade of brown. Wispy gray hair fluffed out in all directions from his head accompanied by a large gray beard and mustache. Beneath thick glasses were piercing, distant blue eyes. He wore a plain brown sweater beneath a tattered white lab coat.

"Very," Spock said absently. "367 years, to be exact." I shot him a cripplingly look that he either didn't see or chose to avoid. We were standing outside of the medical bay watching Bones run through the normal examination process, checking vitals, taking blood samples. Professor Ernsckye sat passively, eyes downcast and brown hands clasped quietly in his lap. After several minutes of waiting Bones made his way over to us.

"His vitals are stable," he said in his usual I-really-don't-want-to-be-on-this-ship-with-you drone. "And he's normal in all other regards. Except for the fact he's a raging super human," he concluded. I looked past McCoy to where the small Indian man sat on the medical table. He sighed, the flow of air moving his whole body.

"He looks… raging," I replied sarcastically. Bones frowned at me.

"His blood is nearly identical to Khan's, though even more perfected," he told me, scratching his ear.

"More perfected?" Spock wondered aloud. "How do you mean, doctor?"

"It's three times more regenerative than Khan's, and pound for pound this guy is proportionally more powerful," Bones said. Spock nodded. Impassive.

"I don't think he's going to try anything or be able to hurt us if he wanted to," I said confidently, still peering over Bones' shoulder toward Professor Ernsckye. "I mean, look at him. That bitch is broken."

"Jim," Bones said. I glanced at him in annoyance. I hated his lectures and usually chose to ignore them. "These people are dangerous. It's very hard to injure them. I can't guarantee your safety if you go in there –"

"Well, it's a good thing I can," I countered. Something in my tone told Bones there would be no more arguing about it.

"Let's go, Spock," I said, turning my back on Bones and entering the lock code on the glass panel that served as a door. I hoped the agitation I was feeling wasn't as obvious to the other two as it was to me. I swallowed heavily and walked into the room.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Professor Ernsckye, my name is James Tiberius Kirk, and I'm the Captain of this starship, the USS Enterprise," I said as I approached the wilted old man hunched on the examination table. Spock's wary footsteps filled in the short silence. "How are you feeling?"

"How should I feel?" came the quiet, crisp reply. The English was heavily accented and somewhat difficult to understand.

"Yeah," I agreed with a sympathetic smile. "Waking up from cryo-sleep is pretty rough, especially after three hundred years of it." Professor Ernsckye's watery blue eyes flickered toward me for a moment and then focused back on his clasped hands. Large metal shackles bound his wrists together. I let the silence hang for several moments. "This is Commander Spock," I said, nodding over my shoulder. "He's my first officer, right-hand man…" I glanced at him. "…and my friend."

"How do you do?" Professor Ernsckye asked meekly.

"Well," Spock replied. I could almost touch the suspicion in his tone. I looked appraisingly between Spock and Ernsckye, then on impulse reached out and released the handcuffs binding the old man's wrists.

"Captain!" Spock exclaimed, clearly appalled. It was all I could do not to smile. Sometimes it was fun to aggravate him.

"Relax, Commander," I said, placing the shackles beside Ernsckye. "That's an order."

"I must confess my reservations," Spock protested, eyebrows furrowing.

"Spock, cool your jets," I snapped. "Professor Ernsckye is our guest, you said it yourself, and if your mother taught you to treat guests like prisoners then she messed up raising you." Spock's nervous expression jumped to one of deep annoyance, but he didn't speak again. I grinned savagely. "Can you walk, Professor Ernsckye? Do you like a good drink?" The old man's eyes lit up for a second. I nodded encouragingly. "I bet you're well past due for a good draught. What do you say we head down to the bar and have Denna whip you up something?"

"Yes," Professor Ernsckye was nodding in agreement. His accent caused the word to sound like _yus_. "It has been long time since I had a drink!"

"Captain Kirk!" Spock expostulated suddenly. "I really must object!"

"Well I really must object to your objection," I said flatly. "This man has not had a sip of alcohol for three hundred years. Three hundred years, Spock!" I didn't have to feign my horror at the idea. "It's about time he's had one!" Turning my back on Spock I helped Professor Ernsckye off the examination table, wincing as his sharp, knobby little hands dug into my biceps for support. His grasp was much stronger than I had anticipated; maybe Spock was right to be a little worried. Nah, Spock was never right. "Will you join us Commander Spock?" I called over my shoulder as Ernsckye and I proceeded to leave the room.

"Right behind you, Captain," Spock replied feverishly.

* * *

"Captain, all of the beverages on board are nonalcoholic," Spock hissed in my ear as we strode through the glossy halls of the Enterprise. "You are lying to Professor Ernsckye."

"It's called the placebo effect, Spock," I shot back. "Didn't you ever study psychology?"

"Perhaps your mother should have taught you not to lie to your _guests_," he replied evenly. I grit my teeth and pointedly walked away from him.

"Professor Ernsckye," I said gently, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go where we have some privacy." I guided him to the far corner of the compact bar to a lonely booth that few people ever used. "Spock, be a dear and get us something to drink, pretty please?" I batted my eyelashes at him affectionately. His pointy eyebrows knit together in anger but he did as he was told. I blew him a kiss.

"Where am I?" asked the gentle voice of Professor Ernsckye. "And why am I not dead?"

"You're onboard a starship called the Enterprise. She's the flagship of a multi-system federation known as StarFleet. Our mission is to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no man has gone before." I smiled smugly.

"So we are in outer space?" he breathed intently. I nodded. A long sigh of air rushed from his mouth and he sank against the booth slightly, muttering something in his language. "What year is it?"

"Star date 2285," I replied. I watched Ernsckye's mouth moving as he computed mentally. His eyes widened.

"_Three_-hundred years?" he balked. Once again I nodded. By now Spock had returned with the drinks. Carbonated water flavored with raspberry. I scowled as darkly as I could in his direction.

"Yes, professor," Spock interrupted, taking a seat at the head of the table. "You have been contained in cryo-sleep and therefore have not aged. You are in precisely the same condition you were in prior being frozen." Ernsckye struggled to compose his obvious astonishment. I took a sip of the sparkling raspberry water and very nearly spit it in Spock's face.

"Do you have any questions for us?" I asked diplomatically. Ernsckye narrowed his eyes coldly. I was suddenly, keenly, abruptly aware of the obtuseness of my query. Of course he was going to have questions, the man had been asleep for three-hundred years.

"Why did you wake me?" I'll admit I was a bit taken aback by this question. I had expected him to ask about StarFleet or the Enterprise, or stuff that had happened between the time he was put into cryo-sleep and the time he woke up. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't wow him with everything I knew.

"Professor Ernsckye," Spock said evenly, "there are seventy-three of your species currently on board the Enterprise. One of them is threatening the federation and our peace. He calls himself Khan, and thus far has orchestrated a terrorist bombing that killed forty-two StarFleet specialists and single-handedly annihilated an entire squadron of a militaristic alien race highly skilled in combat. We need to know all that you can tell us about this man, and how he can be stopped." At the first mention of Khan's name Ernsckye had straightened in his seat, eyes going very wide. It was clear the name was familiar, and, judging by his reaction, startling. He pressed his knobby fingers to his temples and moaned softly as Spock trailed off.

"Professor?" I questioned softly. Ernsckye opened his eyes shakily.

"Where shall I even begin?" he asked, more to himself than to Spock or I, I guessed. He continued blabbering in his native language, as if we weren't there.

"Professor," I interceded, seizing his elbow. "Professor, we don't have a lot of time." His icy eyes focused aloofly on mine. "Why don't you start at the beginning?"

"The beginning?" he asked meekly. I nodded, impatient. Ernsckye sighed. "Where is the beginning? It could be when I first perfected the formula; or perhaps when I first met Khan; or when Khan became the guinea pig in my trials…"

"Just tell us about Khan!" I nearly shouted, frustration evident in my tone. Ernsckye's eyes finally seemed to focus.

"You want the story of Khan?" he asked brusquely.

"Yes!" I replied, exasperated. Ernsckye sniffed.

"Very well. You may have it. Khan was ruthless from the beginning. He had to be; growing up as an orphan in Delhi was not an easy task…"

**AN: Thank you to everyone who has read my fic thus far; you guys are great. Special thanks to Valeera and valmente for favoriting and to PenSmith433, The White Wanderer, Valeera, bullriding lover, and lxaah11 for following. BIG hug and thank you to zeynel for dropping a review, you're awesome! The rest of you should leave me one as well, let me know how I'm doing! ;D! Also, please excuse the liberties I've taken with the time frame. It makes more sense if I alter things a bit. **

**~Love, LadyInglorion**


	3. Chapter 3

**Delhi, India - 1968**

The nights above Delhi were never silent. Constantly police sirens wailed and men swore, women haggled in the streets and children cried. The sounds of automobiles zipping to and fro were ever-present vexations in the inner city; the number of people killed in hit-and-run type accidents numbered in the hundreds. It was the age of the neon sign, the energy efficient bulb, cars that would run purely from sustainable electricity. It was a time when Earth's surface was still divided into countries. Powerful superpowers like the United States and the Soviet Union held the world in their iron grips. It was as if any country that was not self-sufficient was tossed unwillingly into a tug of war match between the two nations, where the little country became the rope. Some were pulled to the left, others to the right, and for some the strain was too much and they snapped.

India became involved in a pact known as the Non-Aligned Movement, emphasizing neutrality in the whole affair. They refused to choose a side, thereby offsetting any threat that might befall them from an irate superpower. They had plenty of problems internally without becoming entangled elsewhere.

The city of Delhi was particularly vile, a place filled with disease, garbage, human wastes, and grime. It was an evil-smelling place where those who had nowhere else to go accumulated; and accumulated by the thousands they did. Barrios stretched for miles and miles outside the city limits, growing exponentially every year. Little cardboard houses sprung up overnight: another soldier joining Delhi's filthy army of homeless. People in the Delhi barrio killed each other for food and other wants. The slums were far too vast to be properly patrolled, and so these starving, unstable people were generally left to their own devices. Truly they lived as animals, where only the fittest survived.

You could make an honest living here shipping and selling opium; the dens were thick and smoky and golden. The richest royals from all across Delhi made faithful pilgrimages biweekly to the barrios in search of that precious commodity; there were always ready sellers. If you knew where to look, you could make several silver rupees from the right patron. Noonien Singh knew where to look.

"Look here, boy!" rasped the coarse voice of a tall man in a business suit. "Your prices are outrageous!"

"They are not, _tuan _Anulata," replied the stalwart vendor. "What I have here is of highest quality! Distilled straight from the finest fields in Kandahar." The boy waved the substance before the bloodshot, distant eyes of _tuan _Anulata. "My offer is three-hundred rupees," he continued, adjusting the prospective customer's pocket-handkerchief boldly. "Take it or leave it."

The man harrumphed.

"Get out of here, you little robber! You'll be lucky if I don't report you to the police! How old are you anyway? You're underage! So help me I will –"

But Noonien Singh was already gone, vanishing between the flowing robes and kicking legs of the city's most populated opium den, tucking the pilfered rupees into his purse concealed inside his shirt. As he ran he dipped his small, nimble hands into pockets and satchels, pulling out all he could manage. No one noticed him; a requirement of being an orphan in Delhi was becoming a vigorous pickpocket. Noonien had worked at, worked at the delicate art desperately. Once he had been caught and beaten so badly he could not hear properly for a week after. Yet he was not deterred. If anything it made him more resolute than ever to become the best at his craft.

Perhaps that unshakable determination is what led the ragged, half-starved orphan of Delhi's slums to become Khan, the pride of the Indian battalion during the Eugenics War. His ruthless pride and unfettered ambition drove him to great lengths to meet his ends; he would stop at nothing to fulfill his passion. He was brilliant, intelligent enough to become a great scientist or alchemist, yet he chose to remain on the battlefield. He craved action, danger, and excitement, and it would be a lie to say he did not harbor a sickening bloodlust. Yet for all that he was as a steadfast soldier, he was equally dynamic in his emotions. When he laughed, he laughed until his eyes sparkled with tears. When he was content, he was languidly so. When he loved, he loved entirely. And perhaps that was the crack in the ice, the fissure in an otherwise impervious glacier. Khan could not maintain control; he did not know when to stop.

**AN: I'll admit this is a bit of a filler chapter, but it's a necessary scene-setter. Special thanks to forgetting-life, TimaeusLover96, RinzlerIsTron123, Cospalp, IWillNeverStopFangirling, LightsAmongTheStars, and Blacklune for favoriting, and to Oluhasuu, MorbidApocalypse, , forgetting-life, TimaeusLover96, Summer dragon1, MysteryintheShadows, GleeDWhoFreak, Cospalp, wotterblue, kellerm2001, MelloBelle, Lady Niona, Ilovebooks1234, GODISAWESOME, BomtiesandFezzesAreCool, IWillNeverStopFangirling, Child of the Night13, fluffydono, SexyHugh88, Blacksword Zero, and LightsAmongTheStars for following! **

**EXTRA SHOUTOUT TO , Cospalp, MysteryintheShadows, GleeDWhoFreak, IWillNeverStopFangirling, Child of the Night13, Furionknight, and LightsAmongTheStars FOR LEAVING ME A REVIEW! YOU GUYS ARE LOVELY! EVERYONE SHOULD ASPIRE TO BE AS LOVELY AS YOU! I will get around to returning your reviews soon! =) Ta ta for now!**

**LadyInglorion**


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